[SETUP] Decisions By Election

This forum is for discussion of individual Open Setups, including theoretical balance.
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Post Post #7 (isolation #0) » Thu Dec 23, 2021 7:34 am

Post by Jingle »

Is the random role distribution independent? By which I mean, is it possible for the same role to come up multiple times in one granting of abilities and is it possible for a player to get the same ability multiple times?
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Post Post #9 (isolation #1) » Thu Dec 23, 2021 1:20 pm

Post by Jingle »

Not at all what I was asking.

To make it more clear, say we choose erudition is the random distribution

Player A
Original Roll String: 1d13
1 13-Sided Dice: (13) = 13

Player B
Original Roll String: 1d13
1 13-Sided Dice: (9) = 9



or does, say, Player A rolling UB prevent B from rolling UB?

Secondly, if we choose Erudition D1 and I get UB, can I get UB again D2 if we choose erudition again?

It's not really a big point, since 10/13 roles are functionally useless and 1 is mostly useless, so the odds of getting useful power out of erudition is crazy low. Similarly, there exist 0 worlds in which supplement or conclave are the right choice because you're no elimming in return for a 0 utility return.
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Post Post #11 (isolation #2) » Thu Dec 23, 2021 2:03 pm

Post by Jingle »

In post 10, RH9 wrote:It doesn't stop them both being UB. If you get UB twice, then you'll probably end up staying as UB but if you get UB than Visitor, you become Universal Backup Visitor. And the distribution table is a sample.
I mean... you can't balance the setup without knowing the distribution table, but it seems unlikely that there will be a case where you ever choose erudition over public cop unless there's a critical mass of powerful PRs, in which case there's never a situation in which you pick public cop. There is not a single modifier I would wager a chance at getting for a guaranteed loss of elimination. And neighborhoods are inherently 0 value.

Still though, nsg is correct that on the face of it this is comparable to a vengeball setup EV wise. It's nightless with vengescum, except that the venge shot happens before the scum elim and you have a more complicated voting phase.
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Post Post #13 (isolation #3) » Thu Dec 23, 2021 6:57 pm

Post by Jingle »

I would definitely make it so that they can't pick both Divulge and Departure (That's just straight follow the cop, but without the doc being killable), but one in those two and one in the other three does make it more interesting as a choice.

Distro and Modifier tables would have to be balanced before each running, but that seems to be a goal of the setup anyway. It's probably townsided assuming a decent amount of power in the potential pool and inherently high swing.

I would consider adding factional scum abilities based on the balance of the roles in the distribution.
I'd also consider making a divulged player ineligible for any of the other three options.

It seems likely to turn into a very grindy game, though, and I don't think you'd ever want to run it as a 17p in a forum setting. Potentially as a F2F it would work better, there's just a very slow rate of deaths which tends to kill larges through replacement attrition.
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Post Post #15 (isolation #4) » Thu Dec 23, 2021 7:22 pm

Post by Jingle »

Depending on PRs and factional abilities it feasibly could, but no, probably not.

Likely to fix the follow the cop option you're going to have to do something along the lines of making Divulge nonconsecutive or giving a direct benefit to scum for its use. That's assuming you don't want the game to be a game that runs similarly to vengescum nightless, which isn't necessarily a given. Vengescum can be a fun game.
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Post Post #17 (isolation #5) » Sat Dec 25, 2021 2:16 pm

Post by Jingle »

First of all, when editing the setup it's a good idea to leave the old setup intact and make a new post so anyone who wanders in has a frame of reference for the early discussion.

Second of all, without having a set distribution list the mechanic can't be fully analyzed for balance. At best you can ask if the mechanic is scumsiding or townsiding.

Third, I don't think the current iteration is feasible at all. You don't have follow the cop as the issue anymore, but instead scum can't kill so long as town eliminates everyday. This setup is functionally Nightless DoubleDay (you only get flips after two elims), which is theoretically balanced at 3T:1M but is in practice townsided at those numbers, with numbers that are further townsiding.

I don't think taking away the scum nightkill if town eliminates leads to any sort of playable game.

I think what you want in a setup (although I could be wrong, certainly) is something closer to this:

X Scum
Y Town

Each day, the players may choose Divulgence or Departure and a player by popular vote.

If town chooses Divulgence the player's alignment is publicly revealed.
If town chooses Departure the player is eliminated from the game.

Additionally, each day the town must choose another player to receive a power at random from the following list:
  • Each night scum must kill a player.


This way, your power assignment function will actually see use. I don't think splitting active powers and modifiers is a good idea because there will always be a clear option between the two. Either the powers will be worth granting or they won't. If they're not, then aiming scummy and hoping to hit something like Complex to force scum to be unable to NK vanilla players is probably better. Similarly, Conclave could easily just be a neighborizer power, although leaving it as a separate option isn't really a bad thing if you prefer that.

Alternatively, you could remove the Divulgence option and make the choice (Grant Power or Elim) in which case the issues you need to resolve are scum killing whoever gets the power and making the powers strong enough to outweigh the loss of an elimination.

For now, I'd recommend focusing on what you want the play to actually look like over the balance, because balance is something you fine tune after you have a core setup that's going to work the way you want it to.
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